Teacher gets pink slip, wins at Cannes

It wasn't the final day of school, but it was the last day Jimmy Bui would see his first-grade students at Juárez Elementary.

Bui, like so many teachers across our county, received a pink slip this spring, this time from the Anaheim City School District. It was his second such notice two years.

But Bui said his goodbyes early, last Friday, because he had to fly to France to pick up an award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. More on that later.

First, he had to say to goodbye to his pint-sized charges. So as the school day wound down and the students rushed to wipe water off their desks from a gooey worm science experiment, Bui used his "time-to-calm-down" trick.

"Classsss?" Bui's voice rang across the room, a question mark punctuating the very last s.

"Yessss," the first-graders answered in high-pitched voices as they rushed to their seats.

"Class, class!" Bui responded.

"Yes, yes!," the students answered, their backs straightened, hands folded neatly in front of them.

Then came the hard part. Bui explained that he was really sad to leave them, but he had a special surprise: a DVD yearbook of photos – a goodbye gift because they had been "awesome."

"I actually – I feel like I don't want to go to France now," he told them. "I kinda want to stay here."

"Me, too, but you hafta go," one of the students piped up in a squeaky voice.

"I know," he told them. Then he reached over to his laptop and pressed play. Above their tiny heads, photographs Bui had taken throughout the year appeared on the overhead screen and a song blasted through the room.

"If you are what you say you are, a superstar, then have no fear, the crowd is here."

The children giggled as they watched themselves on screen.

This is one of Bui's gifts, a knack for using technology to connect with his students. It's a gift that he channeled last year when he received his first pink slip from Gauer Elementary in Anaheim where he had taught 5th and 6th grade for four years and where in 2009, his peers named him 'Teacher of the Year."

Gauer's principal hired Bui back as a special assignment teacher. But three days after starting that job last fall, the district told him they couldn't give him the position after all. He was devastated.

"I want to teach, but nobody is letting me teach, so I decided to start my own thing," says Bui, 28, who has taught for five years.

So with the help of Gauer's principal, who provided room space, Bui launched Paikea Productions, an afterschool leadership program that aims to give students a voice by channeling their talents via filmmaking, photography, and writing. Spending about $2,000 of his own funds, Bui bought sound equipment, cameras and software.

"The goal was to give (the kids) a place where they belong," says Bui, who was hired at Juárez Elementary as a substitute last fall and then given a contract position in February.

"School is not just about tests; it's not just about language, arts, and math. It's about that drive, that ambition," Bui says.

"Some of these kids lose that focus, lose what their dreams are."

Kids, Bui points out, are often on the receiving end of orders. So Bui emphasized that he wanted to hear their opinions. Although Bui says many initially were shy, by the time I showed up last week for their year-end meeting, there was no trace of any bashfulness.

There are about 25 Paikea students, from fifth to 10th grade, and they practically sprang from their chairs to give testimonials.

"Paikea means to me that I can believe in anything I want to do. Mr. Bui always said 'Don't give up, do your best,'" Valeria Cortes, 11, told the group.

"I used to be a troublemaker. And a lot of teachers would see that, and think bad about me. But Mr. Bui didn't see that. He saw the good in me," says Joe Ayala, 13.

"I feel like I'm a part of something that can change the whole world, can change everything," says 12-year Dolores Rios.

The thing is, these kids really have changed their worlds... in ways they never imagined. Take 14-year-old Brandi Jones, an 8th grade student at Brookhurst Junior High, who says she too was considered a troublemaker in school before she joined Paikea.

"I gave up on everything," she says.

Now, not only is she in honors classes, she's discovered that people are listening to what she has to say.

When Paikea Productions created a video to show their support for teachers who had been laid off, former Gauer Elementary teacher Lindsey Whipple says it convinced her not to give up on teaching.

"When I see the video it reminds me of why I'm a teacher, despite the hardships and the layoffs," says Whipple, who, like Bui, has been given two pink slips in two years.

Bui says two months ago he was losing faith, having run the program solo. Some teachers told him the program was a distraction, and that he should focus on keeping his job.

Then he got word that Paikea had won first place in a Kodak ad campaign as part of the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. For Bui and his students, it was validation.

So despite the uncertainty of not having a job next year, Bui promised Paikea's students that the program would go on.

"They can take my job away, they can do whatever they want with my career," Bui told them.

"But they can never take Paikea Productions away because they cannot take heart, they cannot take commitment away."

Often we wonder why so many kids are struggling in school, and really, it boils down to something very simple – pride.

"When you feel good about yourself, you feel like you can tackle anything," says Bui, a native of Orange County of Vietnamese descent.

That message – that every kid is a star – came through loud and clear, even for Bui's youngest charges. It's why last Friday, when the school bell rang at Juárez Elementary, Bui's first-graders surrounded him in a group hug.